20 Questions to Know if you’ve Experienced the Gift of the Holy Ghost

A few months back I was in stake conference and someone gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. In the talk, the person shared parts of a talk by Truman G Madsen, where he lists 20 questions to ask yourself in order to identify if you’ve felt the power and gift of the Holy Ghost. I tried to write most of them down, but may be missing them. In addition, I have had a hard time coming across the Madsen talk, so if you have more information that would be great!

20 Questions

1. Have you ever had the Spirit overwhelm you with gratitude?

2. Have you ever spoken beyond your means?

3. Have you ever given a talk and had people say “you said exactly what I needed to hear”?

4. Have you ever been filled with “liquid fire” in response to prayer?

5. Have you ever been given words to pray?

6. Have you known you’d be called upon to pray or serve in a particular calling?

7. Have you been prompted to share your testimony, or witness of the gospel?

8. Have you felt the overwhelming sense of peace that comes from the Spirit?

9. Have you ever given a blessing or received a blessing you needed?

10. Have you ever been healed by a blessing?

11. Have you had the experience of having the veil thin?

12. Have you been in the temple and the “flood gates open” and light pours into you?

13. Have you had experience knowing there were angels in the temple?

14. Have you had the experience where scriptures seem to “leap off the page” and give you answers?

15. Have you been lead to find names in family history to do geneology and temple work?

16. Have you ever had flashes of insight, or “pure knowledge”?

17. Have you ever sat in sacrament and felt wounds lifted from your soul?

18. Have you ever felt changed from partaking of the sacrament?

19. Have you felt changed from the atonement?

20. (I missed the last one)

Madsen then goes on to explain that when we have these experiences it is when we’re either serving someone else in our family or community, praying, and reading our scriptures…basically doing what it takes to receive a witness. He suggests it requires softness of heart, meekness, humility, and lowliness of heart.

I agree with many of these statements in that I’ve had amazing spiritual experiences in the temple, during prayer, in sacrament, and while giving and receiving blessings.

However, my question I pose is whether one necessarily needs the gift of the Holy Ghost (meaning having received the laying on of hands after baptism) to experience these things, or if anyone can experience these things? For most of my life, I’ve been an active member of the LDS church and don’t really know what it may be like for those who don’t recieve the laying on of hands. I’d be interested to hear from everyone, but especially those who have been baptized members of the LDS church and recieved the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Did you experience an added measure of the spirit after receiving the laying on of hands and what are your thoughts on these 20 questions? Did you, or could you experience this w/o having the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost?

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There may be more than one version of Madsen’s list, but here is one from his book, Christ and the Inner Life. It is awesome!

Here is a slightly shortened and summarized version of his questions:

1. Have you ever prayed and been lifted beyond yourself, both in manner and in the content of your expression, so that it became more than a dialogue with yourself?

2. Have you ever had the experience of “feeling the wounds on your soul” being soothed, being filled with the spirit that warms, and thus being quickened in a hunger and a thirst to return to the sacrament table where you find healing?

3. When a patriarch made promises to you, declaring your heritage and something of the promises of your destiny, was it as if you were surrounded by glorious, but somehow less tangible persons?

4. Have you had the ‘before and after’ experience of Joseph Smith, who speaks of reading the scriptures after receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost?

5. Have you ever, in receiving the priesthood, or an office within it, or a calling to serve felt an “essence of power” or what the Prophet himself spoke about ‘virtue’ which somehow passed from the person into you?

6. Have you ever been involved at the other end, being the instrument for setting apart or ordaining or baptizing or confirming? (See Moroni 2:2)

7. Have you ever stood up, not simply to express gratitude, and not simply to parrot the trilogy of phrases that we often use, but stood up (to bear testimony) because there was an almost compulsive lift to stand?

8. This one in quite long, but to summarize he asks about a “beyond your ability” experience in giving a talk or lesson.

9. See Moroni 10, D&C 46, 1 Cor 12 for lists of spiritual gifts. Have you ever had such a gift, especially while serving others?

10. Have you ever received what the Prophet calls ‘pure intelligence flowing into you’ or a quickening in your soul that binds you to a truth or a person or a sacred place; a drawing power toward something or away from something that you cannot trace into your ordinary environment?

11. This one is about hearing the voice of God in music.

12. Another long one, but having to do with how we experience conscience.

13. This one is about how we experience the temple.

14. I don’t know how to summarize this one, but it is about love. “The nearer we get to our Heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs.” Joseph Smith

I first ran across Truman Madsen’s talk ‘Twenty Questions’ probably 30 or more years ago, and it remains one of my all-time favorites. (And, yes, I have a copy.) But the speaker mis-characterized the talk a bit (or you may have misunderstood). It was reprinted in Madsen’s book Christ and the Inner Life (Bookcraft, 1978).

Madsen is describing an incident that happened after he returned to Utah having finished his PhD in philosophy at an Ivy League university. Someone called him up, asked him if he was still a believing Mormon, and — when Madsen answered ‘Yes’ — asked ‘Why?’ Madsen agreed to have dinner with the man (as he recounts):

Well, it was an interesting evening, and it was not until we had spent nearly an hour merely sparring that I suggested we do something else. I said: “Look, I think we can get to the root of this if I ask you some questions and if you answer them with a simple yes or no. In advance, you should be aware that the questions are designed to see if you have really been subject to the dynamic currents of the Church. I think it will be easy for you to say yes nor no. All right?”

Madsen notes that the man answered 17 of the questions ‘no’, two of them ‘maybe’, and one of them ‘yes’.

Madsen was not talking specifically about the gift of the Holy Ghost, but rather what he termed ‘the Church’s flowing powers’ and ‘the dynamic currents of the power of Christ’.

Finally, I’m not sure how well the questions you’ve noted above map to the questions that Madsen cites in the article. Some do match up, but others clearly don’t. For example, Madsen says nothing about ‘knowing there were angels in the temple’ — what he says is:

I asked him if he felt anything about the promise given at Kirkland refering to the House of God as “a place of holiness.” I asked him if he was constrained to acknowledge as he entered the temple, regardless of the process within, that it was indeed “a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.” (D&C 88:119.) I asked him, in other words, if he had a feeling or sense of the sacred.

You can probably find a used copy of the book online somewhere. ..bruce..

I do think that others outside the LDS faith can feel the Spirit just as strong as those inside the Church. Since I was baptized when I was 8, I don’t really know if I had an added measure of the Spirit. I have experience many (not all) of the things above, but I think those outside the Church have the same opportunity to have similar experiences in their faith. In other words, I think you can experience these things without the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have heard many people describe similar feelings to me that belong to other faiths. They seem as sincere as I am, so I have to believe they are telling the truth about what they feel.

I have felt all of those you mentioned in your post. Every single one. However, I have felt most of them outside the mormon church also. Except of course the ones about the temple..cause I no longer attend.

The gift of the spirit was no stronger in the church than out for me. I actually get more spiritual moments as a trinitarian christian then I ever received as a mormon.

I believe God gives all of his children the gift of his spirit in their souls so they can choose good over evil. It is our conscience. We do good we feel good, we do evil and we have the gift of guilt.

I recently sat with a whole family of TBM’s and they totally discredited my spiritual feelings. Every one of them. It was as if now that I am not mormon I don’t get to feel the spirit.

I wanted to tell them so bad that my life has improved so much since leaving the mormons. I wish everyone could feel the peace I have. You can’t discredit my peace either, because all of you tbm’s know that the peace is the feeling from the spirit telling you things are true.

I think your post is very well done…I only wish that you would know that we all feel the peace by just following the Savior…no other steps needed except to believe he died for your sins.

No one has all the gifts of the Spirit. To some is given one to another, another gift… for the benefit of all. I am sure that you are doing nothing wrong. All of us are told to seek after the gifts of the Spirit, to obtain them for ourselves.

I was converted to the Gospel as an adult and developed a few more gifts of the Spirit after my baptism, but I had at least 2 before that. One of them was to believe on the words of others who taught the truths of the Gospel. Without that gift, I would have never found the true church, or recognized when I did finally find it after much searching.

I have acquired a couple of these because I saw others having these experiences and I desired them too so I worked at it until I received them also. I have others I am still working on. Hope this helps.

First let me say that this is a very good question, and a very helpful blog. It’s nice to see gospel issues discussed so eloquently.

I consider myself a “convert” to the church because I was baptized at age 11 instead of age eight. However, I was blessed as a baby in sacrament meeting and went to church with my grandparents at least 200 times between the ages of 4 and 11.

I didn’t have an active LDS mother or father. Because of that, I missed out on Family Home Evening, scripture study, keeping the Sabbath day holy, honoring all of the commandments and seeing a good example at home. I certainly never felt the Spirit at home in the contentious environment my parents provided.

But things were different at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. There was a calming effect as soon as I walked in the door. There was an air of love and kindness, charity and hope: intangible—however recognizable—feelings.

Before I had the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I may have on occasion felt “the voice of God in music” or acted “beyond [my] ability”. But those were rare occasions when the Holy Ghost was clearly testifying to me of God’s divinity, as opposed to acting as a constant guide or companion.

I know that non-members and even non-Christians can feel the Spirit testify to them. That is His job. But members who have the gift of the Holy Ghost can have Him constantly with them as a comforter, companion, guide and friend. There is a big difference between being testified to and having a constant companion. It’s much like the difference between a couple who is engaged and a married couple. A single person might say there isn’t much difference besides the piece of paper you get from a judge. A married person knows there is a discernable difference. You really have to experience it to know for yourself. And I have had plenty of experience with the Holy Ghost—both as a member and as a non-member.

When a baptized member (like myself, for example) does something to drive the Spirit away, they experience a noticeable difference. When I’ve made bad decisions in the past, I could literally feel the Spirit leave my presence. I could feel Heavenly Father’s disapproval and no matter how much I tried to physically “manufacture” that feeling I get when the Spirit is present—it wouldn’t come.

I am sure doubters and non-believers would roll their eyes if I told them that I can feel Heavenly Father’s approval when I study the scriptures or do service for others. But the truth of the matter is I have done as Alma taught. I have experimented on his words (Alma 32:27). I was inactive for a while when I was a teenager (hard not to be with inactive parents). When I was inactive I’d try to test God and see if I could make myself feel the Spirit even when I wasn’t doing anything “good”. It wouldn’t come.

I’m sure some would say it’s all in my subconscious and there’s no way to prove what I’m saying. But I’ve proven it. I was a non-member, then a baptized but unconverted member. Now I’m an active, converted believer and I have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost—every day, through every decision. I can’t “make myself” feel it. I feel it when I am doing God’s will and when I am being testified to. And as they say, it is a still small voice. And you can’t hear it unless you want to.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Learning to recognize the Spirit can be difficult. If you were on a mission, you probably know this from in the Book of Mormon when the people didn’t recognize the voice from Heaven for a long time. Other examples in the scriptures talk about it as well.

The voice can be still and small and hard to recognize for me too. Sometimes for me, I learn what the Spirit is by losing it (Jennifer mentions this in comment #6). Have you ever done something to lose the Spirit? If so, how did it feel? What did you do to get it back? How did it feel once it returned?

HT thanks for stopping by and for your Easter Wish. I had a great Easter. I hope you had a good one too.

I’m glad you share your perspective because I think you’re right in the fact that many LDS people think no one else feels the Spirit. IF that were the case, then how would the Apostles of old known to follow Christ? How would Joseph Smith known to pray? What about all the people of the world who are led to to good and feel peace and good things? What about the peace and love we feel in nature, with friends, etc.

Jennifer in comment #6 mentions her experience with the Spirit and my circumstance is very much the same.

What are your thoughts after reading about the difference between feeling the Spirit and the Gift of the Holy Ghost?

Before my baptism I was very excited about this special gift. However, after receiving it I did not feel any different. I tired to convince myself it was a different feeling but no such luck. I understand the thought behind the “gift”. If you believe the MC to be true then you have to believe that the MC is the only church on the earth that has that special gift.
I feel it continually with me now more than ever before. He teaches me truth, guides me on the right path, and make me feel peace. And for that I am very grateful. And this even after having all my blessings, ordinances, and covenants revoked by the Lord’s church.
The spirit lives within us all and is our gift as being His children…whether or not we chose to unwrap the gift and use it is our decision.

I can understand where you’re coming from, and one point I think many LDS people have that is wrong is that other churches and religions don’t experience the Spirit. I can’t speak for your experiences and why it was you felt you didn’t feel the Spirit while in the LDS church. Perhaps you were focusing your energy on the wrong things like serving in your callings and other things rather than a personal relationship with the Lord.

I know that when I focus my energy on the Lord and developing a relationship with Him that I feel the Spirit work within me. It sounds like that’s what you’re doing now and whether or not we’re in the LDS church or any other church, when we’re focusing our energy on truth, we’ll feel the Spirit.

Thanks for sharing your perspective with us. It’s interesting to see how the Lord works in all of our lives.

I can completely relate to your experiences. I was inactive in the LDS faith in my earlier years and “converted” when I was 11 as well. There was a completely different feeling in my father’s house compared to my situation with my mother at the time. One can’t describe it in words, but it just makes sense when the Spirit speaks.

I also know what it feels like to have the Spirit leave and when it’s gone you want to do anything possible to get it back.

I did feel the spirit while in the lds church…however like I said before it is a gift everyone has if they choose to use it. I choose to use it a lot more now because I am focusing on just a relationship and not an organization. I think many people would feel the spirit more if they removed themselves from all the political church stuff and focussed on a relationship. Not saying they should leave the church…but that they should not say yes to everything and take time to just focus on the Lord. They would definitely feel the holy spirit in their lives. And that would be a gift to everyone.

I agree with you. You’re right. The most important thing is developing a relationship with the Savior and I agree that many times we (in the church and out of the church) tend to focus on our church jobs, our jobs in our family, our jobs (careers), and our hobbies. We need to always remember to keep the Lord and a relationship with him as number one priority.

I have been part of many religions over the years. I was definitely a seeker. Each religion has something to offer. It wasn’t until I became a Mormon that I felt whole. I feel that I had the holy spirit with me my whole life. Now my energies are more focused. I have a better foundation and happier outlook.

I have great respect for people in other religions. Many are wonderful and filled with the spirit. Usually it’s pretty easy for me to see someone and know if they are full of light and love or darkness. Unfortunately some of the dark ones can be Mormons.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the best place to be for growth and understanding as long as you don’t get sucked into “Mormon culture”. Stick with God and his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Put your faith and trust in God, not man. Stay close to the holy spirit.

This is an old post but I stumbled upon it and wanted to comment as a recent and adult convert. I felt the spirit in my life before joining the church even as an atheist. As a youth, I believe my life was saved by a strong prompting by the spirit that kept me away from a dangerous location. However, there certainly something different as a member of the church. I can much more strongly feel the presence of the spirit. I am much more sensitive and wounded by lewdly or profanity for instance for I literally feel the spirit depart. After receiving my endowment this sensation was amplified in particular.

As a follower of Jesus Christ I have had many experiences with the Holy Spirit. I can answer “yes” to almost all the questions (except the ones having to do directly with the Temple). I have known His peace in the storm, I have had words form in my mind, I’ve been given words of knowledge to speak in the midst of difficult moments and I have even seen what I believe were angelic beings several times in the course of my Christian life. These are wonderful experiences made possible through the Lord Jesus Christ and the bridge He has built between us and our Heavenly Father. How thankful I am to God for these blessings. I believe they are to be the norm in the Christian life as it is the Spirit who brings us into an understanding of the truth.